Vinyl flooring products comprising a heterogeneous layer of consolidated particles or chips are well known and are extensively utilized in commercial sheet or tile flooring applications. In some products, the particles or chips extend from the top surface of the design layer to the bottom surface of the design layer to form a through color/pattern layer. In other products, the thickness of the design layer is greater than the dimensions of the particles or chips, so that the random color design may change as the design layer is worn away.
One particular well known example is vinyl composition tile (VCT), as described by ASTM Specification 1066-04. VCT is a vinyl product made mostly of limestone but contains plasticizers and other bonding agents.
While the present invention is intended for use in a similar type tile, as the specification and Examples describe, it will be obvious to one skilled in the art that the invention is also applicable to various other similar types of flooring, including tile products such as Type III solid vinyl tile and surface applied tile, and to sheet flooring products formed from consolidated chips or fused particles.
The use of recycle or scrap vinyl binder resins in vinyl flooring is known as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,020,020, 4,105,593 and 4,122,224. Additionally, scrap vinyl and other scrap or recycle materials have also been used to prepare a backing layer for use in floor tile and sheet products. In these cases, opaque layers are placed over the scrap backing layer to hide the backing color, and decorative layers or designs are placed above the opaque layer to provide the desired final product visual.
Recently, the US Green Building Council has established the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) system for scoring points for new commercial construction (Table 1). Under the LEED system, flooring can be used to obtain points in new construction if it contains 10% by weight or more of post-industrial recycle material or 5% by weight or more of post-consumer recycle material or a combination of post-industrial and post-consumer. In a similar manner, for existing buildings flooring can be used to obtain points if it contains 20% by weight or more of post-industrial recycle material or 10% by weight or more of post-consumer recycle material.
TABLE 1LEED System For New Commercial ConstructionRatingLEED-NCRatingLEED-EBSystemVersion 2.1SystemVersion 2.0MR Credit5% wt = (post-MR Credit 2.110%4.1consumer + ½ post-1 Point(Post-Consumer materials), or1 Pointindustrial)MR Credit10% wt = (post-20%4.2consumer + ½ post-(Post-Industrial materials)1 Pointindustrial)MR Credit 65% wt = (rapidlyMR Credit 2.550%1 Pointrenewable building1 Point(Rapidly renewable materials)materials and products)NC: New Construction;EB: Existing Building;Minimum % wt for each point. The % for both NC and EB is weight percent.For NC 1 point is granted for at least 5% wt of the total of post-consumer and ½ post-industrial. A second point is granted for at least 10% wt of the total of post-consumer and ½ post-industrial. An additional point is granted for at least 5% wt of rapidly renewable building materials and products.For EB 1 point is granted for at least 10% wt post-consumer materials. A second point is granted for at least 20% wt of post-industrial materials. An additional point is granted for at least 50% wt of rapidly renewable materials.
There has been renewed market interest in giving preference to “greener” flooring products based upon this LEED System. There remains a need to develop “greener” flooring products based upon existing product structures/processes, and available recycle or renewable materials.